Audiobook13 hours
Glow
Written by Jessica Maria Tuccelli
Narrated by Donna Postel
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
In the autumn of 1941, Amelia J. McGee, a young woman of Cherokee and Scotch-Irish descent, and an outspoken pamphleteer for the NAACP, hastily sends her daughter, Ella, alone on a bus home to Georgia in the middle of the night-a desperate measure that proves calamitous when the child encounters two drifters and is left for dead on the side of the road. Ella awakens in the homestead of Willie Mae Cotton, a wise root doctor and former slave, and her partner, Mary-Mary Freeborn, tucked deep in the Takatoka Forest. As Ella heals, the secrets of her lineage are revealed. Shot through with Cherokee lore and hoodoo conjuring, Glow transports us from Washington, D.C., on the brink of World War II to the Blue Ridge frontier of 1836, from the parlors of antebellum manses to the plantation kitchens where girls are raised by women who stand in as mothers. As the land with all its promise and turmoil passes from one generation to the next, Ella#8217;s ancestral home turns from safe haven to mayhem and back again. Jessica Maria Tuccelli reveals deep insight into individual acts that can transform a community, and the ties that bind people together across immeasurable hardships and distances. Illuminating the tragedy of human frailty, the vitality of friendship and hope, and the fiercest of all bonds-mother love-the voices of Glow transcend their history with such grace and splendor, they have the power to exalt the reader.
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Reviews for Glow
Rating: 3.7931034620689656 out of 5 stars
4/5
29 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I got lost many times in this book, there are many characters,some real, some not real but they had a story to tell of racism, cruelity, and family history. I was interested in Ella McGee's tale. I would have loved a book on her that started with her mother's pregnancy and covering all parts of her life, being exposed to hidden family secrets. Then I would have liked a separate story about her mother's from beginning to end. That would have been all neat and tidy but the author weaves a web of stories that are difficult to connect. You learn one story and then another and it seems unrelated but a couple of times at the end of the story a weak strain connects to the body of another story and you think "Aha!. That is what happened. Reading this book reminded me of going to the wake of one from my father'family. I knew my cousins, aunts and uncles but peoples told tales of people I had never had heard of before. Long detailed tales, I was young and curious but I could not connect them with anyone who I know. And now, unfortunately, I have no memory about the stories or how to connect them to my family. It is like a window quickly opened and filled with many interesting object and then. Then suddently shut. That is what this book reminds me of. There were times of beauty and times of the immeasurable cruelity of slavery but many stories were too terrible to pass and they became the lost family historu.I bought this several years ago and recently decided to read it. It is worth reading but it will not come easily.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascinating stories intertwine in this novel that covers several generations of North Georgians. Census instructions and other excerpts from historic documents ground issues of race and identity for the fictional characters whose family tree blends white, Cherokee, and African American branches. Complex and never preachy, Glow brings depth to our understanding o the regions history.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Enter to win a copy of Glow at my blog until 3/25: http://readeroffictions.blogspot.com/2012/03/q-with-jessica-maria-tuccelli-giveaway.html No follow necessary to enter.
Ordinarily, I write my own summaries of books, but try as I might, I could not manage to sum Glow up in a paragraph. This novel, though not especially long, is dense and complex. There hardly is a plot, but a whole lot happens. Nothing is stated explicitly; it's left to the reader to suss out the meaning.
Glow did not especially grab me, but, despite that, I can still appreciate the artistry of the book. Jessica Maria Tuccelli displays evident talent both in the unique construction of a narrative and in the writing of disparate characters.
Tuccelli tells the story using multiple points of view, a very effective narrative style, but a very dangerous one as well. Only authors talented enough to write easily distinguishable characters by voice alone can pull it off. Tuccelli does so with ease. Each of the assortment of characters that narrate their perspective have very particular methods of speaking that clearly distinguish them. Most all of them speak in their own particular dialect, all quite distinct even though they all live in the same small town. One character's brief section seems more like poetry than prose, and, though unclear, conveys perfectly the confusion and tragedy of a little girl's death.
In Glow, Tuccelli tackles a number of serious issues, most importantly that of racism. The characters in the story come from an array of backgrounds, but are mostly black and Indian (as in Native American). The story spans all the way from before the Civil War era to 1941, from the era of slavery to the fight for civil rights.
When I first started reading Glow, I tried to read it like I do most books, quickly, devouring. This was, I realized later, a mistake. By reading so fast, I became confused about some of the action and the relationships between moments. When I began reading more slowly, giving myself more time to mull over what was going on and to really savor Tuccelli's talent, my joy of the book most certainly increased.
If you like beautifully-written historical fiction that will really make you think, try Glow. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is BRILLIANT! Clever, sensitive overview of race and family relations in one small county in the American South over 150 years. A personal story which nevertheless paints a wide picture and creates a vivid atmosphere. I hope to read more by this author.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book marks the start of an interesting new YA series. The Earth has become inhabitable and two ships, the Empyrean and the New Horizon are taking inhabitants to the New Earth. Kiernan and Waverly are part of the first generation to be conceived in deep space. In a desperate attempt to keep their inhabitants populated the New Horizon kidnaps all of the young girls from the Empyrean. The story alternates between the separate struggles of Kiernan and Waverly. Each taking separate leadership roles. The book is a quick and easy read. I feltore connected to the character of Waverly, but Kirrnans story is an important element. Overall a book For which i will look forward to the next installment!Reader received a complimentary copy from Good Reads First Reads.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I am not going to lie, this book took some getting used to. What it reminded me of is a great bit ball of string, all knotted up, and trying to get it all into one smooth string, you have to follow the knots and work them slowly, one by one. Glow begins with the story of Mia and Ella - Mia being the teenage mother of Ella, but Ella believing her grandmother is really her mother. There is racial tensions, being as this is set in Georgia in the mid-40's, and the switching back and forth between perspectives makes things a bit tiring.But then something happens around mid-way through the book. The knots begin to take on lives of their own, and the characters meander through each others lives making the transition between characters and times a bit more easy to stand. Glow is a fascinating look at not only the lives of characters of mixed race (Native American and African American feature prominently in this book), but also a very interesting look at the publications of the Census Bureau during the various times in the novel. Glow is a tearjerker - I was weeping and angry at the injustice that was oh so real and happening to people within its pages, and by the time I had closed the book, I knew I'd experienced something that will haunt me into the future.